BUCKS STILL BEASTS OF THE EAST AFTER TAMING RAPTORS
Toronto defenders contain Greek Freak but shooters struggle to get untracked
The danger is reading too much into a game in February when, right now, it’s only about the preparation for the meaningful contests in May and June.
But make no mistake, Tuesday’s tilt between the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the Eastern Conference had a little more juice than usual.
The fact that the Toronto Raptors were playing without two of their top seven rotation players and the Milwaukee Bucks were playing on the back end of a back-to-back, having just played an overtime game on Monday night, meant neither team was in top form.
Still, those who did show up played this one with the gravity such a game demands. Defence, fitting given these are the top two defences in the league, was in peak form for much of the night.
But it was the Bucks who pulled away to win 108-97. Milwaukee now owns a 2-0 advantage in the season series with two games remaining, one in both markets.
The Bucks have won six of the past seven regular season games between the teams.
For a half it was very competitive game, but after the break the Bucks began to pull away with a 34-19 edge in that third and game-changing frame. The momentum started to switch in the final few minutes of the first half as the Bucks closed on an
11-1 run.
The Raptors got their second look this season at the still improving defending league MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Raptors rallied from a 2-0 deficit in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals in large part because they found a way to contain the big man.
But that was with Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green (now departed) and Marc Gasol locking things down. Only Gasol will be there, after he returns from injury, when the teams meet again.
Antetokounmpo played just under 40 minutes in this one and while he was his normal dominant self on the boards with 15 rebounds, the Raptors showed him multiple defenders in holding him to just 19 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
But credit Antetokounmpo for not forcing the issue when the Raptors were clearly making any shot from him a difficult one. The Greek Freak willingly gave the ball up and even wound up leading the game with eight assists, another sign of his growth this season.
But if you’re the Raptors you have to like the job OG Anunoby, Serge Ibaka, Rondae Hollis-jefferson and even Chris Boucher did on the Bucks’ go-to scorer.
Khris Middleton, who was rather quiet in the first half with just five points, came alive in the second and wound up with a game-best 20 on 6-of-11 shooting.
Ibaka, who has been so strong in the absence of Gasol, had a rough shooting night going just 2-for-14 from the floor. Pascal Siakam also struggled with this shot, going 5-of-13, so it meant the Raptors needed more scoring outside of their starting unit.
Enter the trio of Terence Davis, and Boucher who combined for 29 points off the bench to keep Toronto in the game.
The teams meet again on April Fool’s Day in Milwaukee and close out the season series two days later in Toronto.
READY FOR ANYTHING
But credit Antetokounmpo ... The Greek Freak willingly gave the ball up and even wound up leading the game with eight assists.
Not sure if this was meant as a slight or dig in Nurse’s direction, but Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer certainly didn’t sound like he appreciated some of the gimmicky defences Nurse and the Raptors have used with success.
“Yeah, it’s unusual,” Budenholzer said. “It feels like I’m seeing a college Monday nighter or something like that.
“I think coaches and teams have been doing more things a little out of the box every year,” he said. “Usually it’s a sign that you may be winning, so hopefully it’s a good thing and you hope that you’ll continue to win — not losing due to a press. So we’ll see if they do anything different to us, but our guys will be ready.” QUICK HITS: Budenholzer doesn’t sound very interested in adjustments. “We are very much just focused on ourselves,” he said. “Defensively, offensively we play pretty true to this. I do think our assistant coaches, they do a good job of being prepared. I don’t want to undersell it and say that we’re not prepared every night, but the degree to which we do something one night versus something different the other night, by NBA standards, we’re probably on the other end of the spectrum. We kind of do what we do and hopefully it’s good enough in our habits. We really believe in building habits. The best way to build habits is just to do it night in, night out.”